A Day To Honor And Remember

49ers and former teammates pay tribute to ailing Clark

- Craig Massei

HEADLINE: A Day to honor and remember

High above the field at Levi’s Stadium, over looking a football franchise eager to embrace him, sharing with the people with whom he became an indelible part of NFL history, Dwight Clark labored as he rose to his feet in a private suite to address the adoring crowd below him.

Every face on the field and in a sold-out stadium was fixated upon Clark, one of the really good guys in 49ers history, a warm individual and charismatic character who rose from college obscurity to become an All-Pro wide receiver and play a huge role in the creation and sustenance of one of the greatest dynasties ever in professional sports.

The emotion was clear in Clark’s voice as he spoke in measured tones, a byproduct of the terminal disease that is ravaging his body. This was his day, to be sure, but it also was a day for everything 49ers, for 49ers lovers and followers everywhere.

It was “Dwight Clark Day” as the winless 49ers slogged through their Week 7 game in late October, and there was more than just a little bit of irony that it was the Dallas Cowboys on the opposite sideline. That brought back visions and memories of Clark’s greatness, of the moment when his talent and skill lifted the 49ers over the Cowboys with “The Catch” in the 1981 NFC Championship Game to inaugurate a new frontier of football for both San Francisco and the rest of the NFL.

Those moments will last forever. Clark won’t. He is battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and the odds are stacked against him beating the dreaded sickness.

There indeed was a bit of sadness seeing the effects of the illness on a such a robust, handsome and magnetic individual who has charmed a generation of 49ers and those who follow the team.